[WIP} Map of Elníl

[Yasha Oqlie]

Here's a WIP of the map I'm currently working on, depicting the valley of Elníl.

Exams and real-life stuff have kept me busy for the past month or so, and I just hadn't been able to work on my Khertagawei map after my last post. I'm getting back to it, but at the moment I'm very dissatisfied with the overall shape of the land, so I decided to work on something else in order to keep up with the inspiration while I take care of that problem. In order to avoid struggles with things so simple and basic as land shapes, I decided to work on bringing to life maps that I have drawn when I was 12 or thereabouts. Nostalgia will most likely beat my nitpicky tendencies, or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

Here's the handdrawn original that I've scavenged from my old worldbuilding stuff. I do apologize for the terrible quality, but I don't have a good camera handy.



I decided that I'm going to redraw this in an isometric style. While I intend to keep things similar to what I had drawn back then, I'm still going to shift some things around and add and remove features to make it more... interesting. For this map, I'm going to value aesthetics and having-fun-while-drawing-it over realism and accuracy. For instance, the mountains are going to be much much larger than they actually should be. At any rate, here is what I have so far, which isn't much at all, but I wanted to start this thread both in order to push myself to actually work on it, and also to get suggestions and guidance as early as possible.

Firstly, I've made the original photo fit the perspective I'm going for:



And this is the basic reference for the map, laying down the whereabouts of the base of the mountain range and the river:



As you see, I've decided to add more rivers to the original, because I figured a verdant valley such as this should feature more streams and whatnot. BTW, the scraggly stuff at the mouth of the valley is a Hadrian-style wall. The people of Elníl are really xenophobic

I think I'll draw the map in grayscale and add colors later, but I guess we'll see what happens.

Suggestions and criticism are very welcome, so please don't hold back.

[Yasha Oqlie]

A quick update to show some minor changes. It should be a better representation of where this map is going at the moment.



Hopefully, next update would be the actual map itself rather than just the basic reference. My actual canvas size is 12500 x 8300 px. I hope the size is good enough for the end results.

[Yasha Oqlie]

A small update this time:



I think the mountains need more work, but they are actually there now.

[Yasha Oqlie]

I worked on the mountains some more, though they still need more work. If anyone has any suggestions about how to improve them, I will appreciate hearing it.

[Meton]

I don't know how to help you with drawing mountains, but it's looking good! Although, the perspective is quite low, but the valley seems a lot shorter than in the original map, because the mountains are higher in the back. I assume those mountains are higher than in the foreground, but because of the perspective the mountains should appear much smaller.

Also, I know well what you are referring to with the nostalgia, I also did maps when I was 12 or something and it's really fun to explore those maps today! Maybe I should also bring life to some of my really old maps.

[Yasha Oqlie]

I'm a bit unsure about what to do with the size of the mountains. The first issue is, the mountains become way larger towards the end of the valley, so if I were to show a size comparison and bring that largest mountain at the end (which, as a side note, is called Mt. Ethlendil aka "head-in-stars") to the front, this is what it would be like:



So I have taken note of making the mountains at the end smaller for the sake of perspective, it's just that it's being counter-effected by the increase in size. The second issue is that while I want to emulate perspective, I'm not going for a true perspective and I have enlarged the scale of the mountains at the same time. The third issue is that I've indeed made the perspective too low as you have noted. I should probably elongate the valley a bit more. I'll do that for the next update, so we'll see if it will work out better.

You should definitely try "remastering" your old maps, it's fun and a good exercise for when one is bored or stumped with one's other projects.